Participants of this class will discuss how to see into “the deep heart’s core” of a poem and how to refine that core sentiment and sensibility by heightening attention to images, tropes, diction, syntax, line breaks and other musical features of the language. Poems from literary magazines will be examined for specific technical issues, but students’ poems will be the inspiriting focus and force of workshop discussion. Writing exercises that steer the poem toward new strategies and discoveries will be considered.

Neil Shepard has published three books of poetry, Scavenging the Country for a Heartbeat, I’m Here Because
I Lost My Way and This Far from the Source. In 2011, his fourth book, (T)ravel/Un(t)ravel, will be released. Shepard currently teaches in the Wilkes University low-residency MFA program in creative writing. He is also the founder and editor of the literary magazine Green Mountains Review.